Hillsides near Vétheuil

Hillsides near Vétheuil from 1881 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen documents the landscape topography that formed the backdrop to Monet's years in the Seine valley village. The chalk and limestone bluffs that rose sharply above Vétheuil on the opposite bank of the Seine were a constant presence in the paintings he made from river level, their pale mass visible above the village roofline and willows in nearly every Vétheuil composition. Painting the hillsides directly — ascending the bluffs and looking across the valley from above — gave Monet a panoramic perspective that anticipates the elevated coastal views of his Normandy cliff campaigns. The breadth of these hillside views, with the Seine valley unfolding below, pointed toward the more expansive compositional ambitions of his later career; the intimate Argenteuil period focus was giving way to something more open, more concerned with sky and horizon. These 1881 hillside paintings were among the last he made at Vétheuil before the definitive move toward Giverny.

The hillside composition places vegetation and chalk in the upper two-thirds against a sky zone. Monet uses broad confident strokes for the chalky slopes, varied brushwork for the scrubby vegetation. The palette is warm and summery, the hillside tones ranging from warm cream to sun-bleached grey-green.